Meyer, Jerry Jones a perfect match
From the tire tracks all over Jason Garrett’s back, it’s clear the only thing standing in the way of the Cowboys and the Super Bowl is a better coach.
There’s no better match for Jerry Jones than Urban Meyer.
The Meyer-to-the-Cowboys rumors have been swirling for weeks now, and Jones might as well have waved a contract in Meyer’s face Tuesday morning. He denied on his weekly radio show that he’s talked with the former Ohio State coach – or anyone else – but refused to say he won’t.
“Normally when someone says, ‘Have you met with such and such? Are you interested in such and such?’ the implication is you’re not interested,” Jones said. “That shouldn’t be brought forward either.
“The facts are we just have not talked to any coach – potential coach in the NFL.”
But the pairing makes too much sense for Jones not to.
Dallas has fared best with a coach who was successful in college first, with Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer as the only coaches since Tom Landry to lead the Cowboys to Super Bowls. The NFL is the one challenge Meyer hasn’t conquered and, at just 55, he is still young. He also coached Ezekiel Elliott at Ohio State.
More than anything, though, Jones and Meyer deserve each other. Their outsized egos and penchant for insincerity would make the Jones-Bill Parcells pairing seem like a model of humility in comparison.
Part of the reason Garrett is so ineffective is because he’s never going to stand up to Jones, who in addition to being the Cowboys’ owner is also the team’s general manager. Stephen Jones and Will McClay give their input, sure, but it’s Jerry Jones who has the ultimate say-so.
This is also why Garrett has lasted as long as he has. Jones doesn’t want someone who will challenge him or suggest that perhaps the team would do well to invest in a safety or two. Or shore up its depth on the offensive line.
Meyer won’t be so passive. He’s used to running his teams like fiefdoms, enjoying complete control and answering to no one despite what the org chart says. Even the appeal of a glamour job like that of the Cowboys will wear thin when Jones ignores Meyer’s input or, worse, throws him under the bus.
Of course, this assumes Meyer even wants to coach again.
When he stepped down at Ohio State, Meyer said it was due, in part, to health concerns exacerbated by the intensity of coaching. Good thing coaching the Cowboys, the NFL team with the highest profile and most demanding owner, wouldn’t be intense or anything!
He also insisted, at the time and in interviews early in the fall, that he was at peace with his decision and didn’t think he’d coach again.
But much like Jones, whose genuineness is often in direct proportion to his self-interest, what Meyer says is less important than what he does. Or, as the powers that be at Ohio State learned, doesn’t do.
When asked in October if he’d consider the Cowboys’ job, Meyer’s response was “absolutely.”
“That’s the New York Yankees,” he said during an interview with Fox’s “The Herd with Colin Cowherd.” “That’s the one. Great city. They got Dak Prescott, Zeke Elliott. You got a loaded team. … To me, that’s the one job in professional football that you say, ‘I got to go do that.’ ”
Never mind that the job was, and still is, Garrett’s. That Jones wasn’t yet publicly undermining his coach, accelerating his team’s death spiral in the process.
For people like Meyer, and Jones, their own interests are paramount. Everything, and everyone, else is expendable.
If Jones persuades Meyer to coach the Cowboys, they’ll both get what they deserve.